REMEMBERED

While on patrol on the Cho Chien River, 60 miles south of Saigon at 07:30 on 24 May 1967 PBR 101 came under fire from the right bank from an ambush cleverly set by the Viet Cong. The first RPG round hit the forward .50 mount and exploded killing Lt. Charles Don Witt, and crewmen Roy L. Castleberry, and Michael Courtney Quinn. ENFN Terry Franklin Leazer, the midships gunner, returned machinegun fire on the enemy, before being felled by enemy machinegun fire. The boat was drifting into the right bank, and into enemy hands, when Micheal James Devlin (the lone survivor) reversed the engines, and was able to get the boat out of the kill zone.

I went to school with Terry from 1st grade until we graduated high school. We played Little League together, sand lot football on Saturday afternoons, went to the show together, and whatever buddies do as kids. We even got into trouble together. It's been 37 years since he's been gone and I would be amiss if I said I didn't think about him a thousand times since that day. I served my time in Vietnam with the Army, just like Terry said would happen if I didn't join him in the Navy. I go to his grave often when in southern Iowa, and reminisce of days gone by.

A Note from The Virtual Wall

"On 24 May the Officer in Charge, River Patrol Section 531, three PBR crewmen and a Vietnamese national policeman were killed by intense fire from the north bank of the [Ham Luong] river, four miles downstream from Cu Lao Oc. Five other U.S. sailors were wounded during this action.

"The patrol, composed of PBRs 101 and 106, was attacked by automatic-weapons and recoilless-rifle fire from several Viet Cong positions. The patrol returned the fire. Then a recoilless-rifle round struck the forward .50 caliber mount of PBR 101, killing the gunner, the patrol officer, and the helmsmen. The midships gunner was subsequently killed by machine gun fire as the PBR veered toward the bank out of control. The wounded after gunner finally managed to bring the boat under control and turned clear of the range of fire.

"The Vietnamese policeman, embarked in PBR 106, was killed when a recoilless-rifle round struck the patrol boat amidships. The effects of the burst also seriously wounded the boat captain and the after gunner, and disabled the craft's port engine.

"During the engagement armed helicopters and fixed wing aircraft launched strikes against the ambush sites. Subsequent intelligence reports indicated that the air strikes and the PBR fire had killed at least 19 Viet Cong and wounded 36 others."

From the US Naval Forces Vietnam
Monthly Historical Summary for May 1967

ENFN Leazer was the "midships gunner" identified in the Monthly Summary quoted above. The other three men killed in the
24 May 1967 ambush were: